The Voice

That voice....
That accusing voice that comes to all of us at one time or another.
It seems to appear whenever we are pressed down by trouble or situations that seem to have no answer.
The voice draws our attention away from God and keeps it focused on ourselves.
It is the voice of the enemy.
"Has God really said..........?" Questions that float through our mind, trying to draw us back to an old lifestyle for the answers.
A lifestyle of doubt....
A lifestyle of fear....
A lifestyle that kept us in addiction.
That voice .....
That accusing voice that crushes us under a barrage of names....each one tearing open the old wounds.
"Junkie!"
"Thief"
"Liar"
"Cheat"
"Adulterer"
With each accusation, it is so easy to slip away into darkness looking for relief and peace.
That voice.
I hate the sound of that voice.

Whenever that voice comes to us...
In our minds.....
We need to not give in, but listen for the one, true voice.
The voice that rises above our emotions.
The voice that is not found in accusations...but in the power of promise.
Promise to deliver...
Promise to restore...
Promise to set us upon a rock of stability and empower us to move beyond the din and death of that "old" voice.
The voice of God!

We read in Romans 3: Since we have compiled this long and sorry record as sinners, and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of his love and generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the sin-mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

What I've written above is truth.
That voice which belongs to our enemy doesn't like the sound of truth or the reality and power of these words.
You see, the next time that voice comes to you and begins to whisper these accusatory words in your mind....It doesn't matter what you emotions say.....you speak out (verbally) the truth. You recite these words from Romans 3. It's not a magic talisman or some kind of Christian voo-doo spell casting. It is a simple statement of fact.
If you are a child of God....
If you have given yourself to Christ...
If you have been saved.....
Then the truth is your greatest weapon against the voice.

No matter what is going on in your life today....
Whether you are deep into your addiction...
or you've got months, maybe even years of clean time....
IT is the voice of God ...
IT is the presence of God...
IT is the salvation of God that we need to walk out our days here on planet Earth.
Jesus is the capital "P" in Power that we so desperately need.
The Power we read about in Step #2....A Power greater than ourselves who could restore us to sanity.

I want to close out today's posting with Romans 12:1-2 from the Message Bible.
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-----your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around life---and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Think about this today...
Ruminate on it and let it get all down inside of you....

God on you....
mb